Haleakalā National Park (Wilderness Tent Permit)

We were told by the ranger that we could not see the sunrise from Holua campground because we would be too deep down in the crater but it was not true. Check the sunrise time ahead of time and set up your alarm to wake up early. It is worth it. You see the sunrise over the clouds. Excellent experience.

We had no idea this site was an 11 mi hike. We thought it was a drive up camp site. The website also didn’t allow us to cancel our reservation and the person who was on the chat hung up.

A great experience. Looking forward to reserving a cabin and going back.

Camped at Holua the first night. Site, vault toilet, and water source were perfect. I saw all 4 campsites were reserved but only one other site actually had someone. Then hiked to Paliku. We were pretty much camping in rain and wind the whole time. Make sure you are able to stake your tent down well. Water source, sites and vault toilet were all great again. Also only one other campsite of the 5 showed up too. It is annoying that the reservations are full and then both campgrounds only actually had us and one other group show up. Maybe this could be fixed by having people confirm their reservation a couple days ahead of time. There also were not great resources for finding out more about the trails and sites. We were prepared for the wind and rain and Paliku, but it would have been nice to also expect it more. We were able to get cover behind the cabin to cook with the stove. We hiked some into the Kapao Gap and it was beautiful. It is overgrown so if you plan on going out that way make sure you have hiking poles and start early. Haleakalā was beautiful. Overall I am just giving the 3 stars because I was annoyed that the reservation system is clearly not working well since all sites were reserved but less than half of the people showed up.

First of all it's really bad that there is no public transport to the entrance. We had to walk up from Kula. Second, the campsite is not marked well! Third, there is not enough space for two tents at the designated area. And last the space is nice but you can neither see sunset nor sunrise and it is pretty far of a peak.

Incredibly beautiful park. And the trails within the park are very well done overall.

I do not recommend doing the hike all the way down to Kaupo. As of June 2021 the lower half of the trail is in very bad shape and signage indicating length of the hike varied from 5.5 mi to 8.4 mi, and it was sometimes unclear what was being referred to (kaupo road, kaupo trailhead, park boundary, etc).

Overall, this is one of the most spectacular places on the planet, and the park is doing a great job of having it be accessible, while maintaining it's illustrious beauty. The volcanic crater is unmatched in how unique it feels and it's pristine majesty harks back to when it was being formed by lava which flowed up from beneath the Earth, and then headed over to form the Big Island of Hawaii. If you hike all the way to Paliku you can look out the Kaupo gap from inside the crater and see Big Island of Hawaii, Mauna Kea, Mauna Loa etc, where the lava continued onward, flowing out of Haleakala (and back underwater?). I feel such deeper appreciation for the formation of these islands and really appreciate the park brochure, which outlines the way Hawaiians have taken care of this land and the different environment subdivisions. Much gratitude for all who have maintained this beautiful place. Mahalo and Aloha.

just incredible. you park overlooking the clouds, and hike through the clouds down into the crater of the volcano. The views of the sun setting on the clouds and then the stars at night (dark sky!) are unbeatable. You can hike an easy couple of miles from Holua camp to where the landscape gets very desert/ moon-like (sand and rocks). The Holua tent sites are clustered, but well-separated by shrubs. Nice to have an outhouse nearby the campsite too! We stayed only one night, so didn't need to refill water, but there's a non-potable water source at the campsite, which is handy.